Ex-Portland Trail Blazer Jamal Crawford to LA Clippers

Hollywood Calling

Oh how cruel life can be sometimes for Portland Trail Blazers fans. At the beginning of the 2011-2011 NBA season, many Blazer fans around the nation were ecstatic at the possibility of Jamal Crawfordand Brandon Roy playing side-by-side.

There were dreams of wins, dreams of the NBA playoffs, and perhaps even dreams of an NBA championship.

Unfortunately for every one of those Blazer fans who thought that, their dreams would never come to fruition as we know all too well the saga of Crawford and Roy.

Opting out of his second year with the Blazers, Crawford became a free-agent and per a report by the LA Times will sign with the Clippers once the NBA moratorium on free agent signings is lifted.

Jamal Crawford will be on the move once again to LA (photo cbssports.com)

Portland Days

Coming off of a 2010 campaign that saw him win the NBA sixth man of the year award, Crawford and the Blazers had high hopes as he would give the Blazers a solid foundation for a push towards the NBA playoffs.

After injuries to Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, any playoff dreams for Portland were essentially dashed.

Though both Roy and Oden fell to injury, Crawford remained healthy throughout the season and averaged 13.9 points per game while averaging 30.9% from three-point range.

A local from Seattle, Washington, Crawford was more than welcomed to Portland by his northwest fans.

Although he had originally signed a two-year deal with the Blazers, Crawford decided to opt out of the second year of his contract in order to shop her services elsewhere.

The New Deal

As of this morning (July 5th), Crawford is now pending to become one of the newest additions to what is becoming a stacked Los Angeles Clipper team. Already having Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, the Clippers have reportedly come to terms with both Chauncey Billups and Crawford.

Crawford will receive a deal in the 3-year, $15.7 million range and will likely be a nice addition to a team looking for another outside presence.

Though Billups will likely start over Crawford, due to an injury Crawford will start in place of Billups until Billups is fully recovered. He [Crawford] will give the Clippers a stable and viable option at shooting guard for the first portion of the season as the Clippers should come out to be one of the better teams in the NBA in 2012-2013.

How Should Blazer Fans Feel?

While it may be upsetting that a local kid doesn’t feel the need to stay in Portland for another year, we have to acknowledge that Crawford did give his best effort here in Portland.

Throughout his year in the Rose City, Crawford played to the best of his abilities with the team that was around him, and we should thank him for that.

It is a little sad, though, that a local and veteran player did not see the opportunity of winning games in Portland; an unfortunate consequence of the rebuild and reload mentality of the Blazers right now.

However, Portland fans can be happy with the fact that Crawford really did not produce as well as he has in the past. So, while he did help the Blazers every now and then during the 2011-2012 season, his departure will not effect the team as much as some people may think.